First Ride: Yeti SB5.5c

A little look into how the sausage gets made: Usually when I attend a product launch, I’m not told what the company is presenting, and no product information is provided before scheduled meetings.

But a few days before this latest Yeti launch, a PDF was emailed to me with all the details about its latest bike, the SB5.5c. Before I could see or ride the bike, I was able to scan the details on paper: 29-inch wheels, 140mm rear travel; 160mm FOX 36 fork; 66.5-degree head tube angle.

“Dear god, what a huge bike,” I thought. I expected something even beastlier than Yeti’s 160mm 27.5-inch wheel enduro bike, the SB6c. But I was surprised to discover that the 5.5c is a much livelier and trail-friendly bike than I anticipated, while just as capable as I guessed.

No longer a novelty, Yeti's Switch Infinity suspension system with translating lower link is one of the best around

Matt Phillips

Racer’s Request
Yeti’s president Chris Conroy says the 5.5c was made at the request of the brand's enduro team. “This came directly out of our racers noticing that on certain courses 29-inch wheels were just flat faster," he says Riders were on the 4.5c, but wanted something longer travel that was still super maneuverable. "When you compare it to the 6c, which is a pure enduro machine, the 5.5c is a little more playful, a little less travel. So on courses that are super rough and they needed to move [the bike] around a bunch, [the 5.5c] will suit that really well. What we found after we made it was that became the favorite trail bike of everybody internally.”

The 5.5c’s chain stays are 17.2 inches, quite short for a 29er with this much travel, and, in Yeti’s style, the frames have low-ish bottom brackets (346mm), longish top tubes (601mm, size medium), and the previously mentioned 66.5 degree head angle, which Yeti pairs with a 51mm offset fork.

The 5.5c is the favorite bike of Yeti employees. Quite a turnaround for company that, not too long ago, had a very skeptical view of 29ers

Matt Phillips

The 5.5c is the fourth frame to use Yeti’s Switch Infinity suspension system. “Each model is fine-tuned for its specific inputs: geometry, travel, specific shock, typical chainring size, etc., but the distinct Yeti feel is maintained across the line,” Yeti’s engineering director Peter Zawistowski told me. “This is one of the advantages of Switch Infinity: that the system can be easily tuned—with consistent behavior—over a large range of travel and wheel sizes.” Though the stock shock on the 5.5c is the FOX Float X DPS, the bike is coil-spring friendly.

These days, Yeti is all carbon frames, all the time, and the 5.5c’s frame design is so close to the 4.5c it’s hard to tell them apart with a brief glance.The 5.5c’s frame is for single-ring drivetrains only and has ISCG ’05 taps, a PressFit 92 bottom bracket, Boost 148mm rear spacing, and internal routing for derailleurs, dropper post, and rear brake. Head tubes are short: medium, 90mm; large, 105mm, extra-large, 121mm. Claimed frame weight is about 6 pounds, and Yeti sells the 5.5c with a 5-year warranty.

The 5.5c is spec'd with a FOX Float X DPS air shock, but it is also compatible with coil-spring shocks

Matt Phillips

The 5.5c will be offered as a frame with FOX Factory Float X DPS for $3500, and in three complete builds: SRAM GX $5,699, SRAM X01 $6,999, and Shimano XTR with Enve M70 HV wheels for $10,599. The complete bikes are spec’d the way Yeti employess ride their bikes: RockShox Reverb dropper post, 50mm stem, 780mm-plus wide bars (though most cut them down a bit), 30-tooth rings, and heavier tires (2.5” Maxxis Minion DHF up front and a 2.3” Maxxis Aggressor in the rear). Despite the heavier-duty build, my size medium X01 review bike came it at 29 pounds on my scale.

The 5.5c should be available to purchase in mid May. No Beti version of the 5.5c was announced.

The 5.5c is spec'd with a FOX Float X DPS air shock, but it is also compatible with coil-spring shocks

Matt Phillips

Riding the 5.5c
Yeti unveiled this bike to the press in Moab, Utah, where we rode the new SB5.5c on Hymasa, Rockstacker, Captain Ahab, Porcupine Rim, and some of the Navajo Rocks trails. After the launch, I brought a sample home with me to Durango, Colorado where I took the new Yeti on some of my favorite test loops. In all, I was able to ride the 5.5c on a variety of terrain: fast and open, slow and techy, extended climbs, chunder, smooth, steep, pedal-y.

What surprised me most about the 5.5c is how capable it is in slower, tighter terrain. On the same trails that riding the 6c was such a fight, the 5.5c was nearly nimble. It pivoted around tight switchbacks—uphill and downhill—very well, and it pedals very efficiently, so it picks up needed momentum quickly. Pedal strikes weren’t much of an issue either, so I could keep my momentum going: BB height is 346mm (13.66 inches), which is low-ish, but not crazy low these days, and the rear suspension doesn’t wallow mid-stroke.

Big bikes get big tires: all complete 5.5c models come with a 2.5

Matt Phillips

With that kind of adept handling, the big wheels and big travel were less of a burden in the slower, tighter, techier terrain that I had anticipated: The 5.5c was not as huge a bike as I had feared.

To be clear, my surprise was relative to expectations. The 5.5c still is a bigger, heavier, slower bike: This is a big gun, and there are a lot of situations—mellower/smoother trail riding, tighter trails, steeper and longer climbing—when a smaller bike like the 4.5c is quicker, easier and, to me, more fun to ride.

The SB5.5c uses the Press-Fit 92 bottom bracket standard

Matt Phillips

But when the trails get gnarly, the speeds go up, and the trail points ever more sharply down, that’s when the 5.5c is exactly as huge as I expected, in the best ways possible. Big wheels and travel, great suspension, excellent tires, good geometry: This bike assassinates trails, makes almost anything an optional line, and humiliates corners.

The 5.5c is Yeti’s fourth Switch Infinity bike, and the system continues to demonstrate its excellence and well-rounded performance. The pedaling performance, support, and traction are superb. With the 5.5c, the rider feels like they’re always getting the full benefit of the 140mm—yeah, it’s plush—with good mid-stroke support, no harsh bottom-out. Personally, I’d like the bike to be a touch more initial sensitivity, and a little more end-of-stroke progression, but I think I can get there with with the stock shock and air volume spacers and more setup time. But I’m also very curious to see what the 5.5c rides like with a coil shock. Another small suspension complaint: Yeti specs the FOX 36 with FIT4 damper, but I’d prefer to see the more adjustable HSC/LSC damper with independently-adjustable high and low speed compression damping on this bike.

The handling follows the what I expected/not what I expected theme as well. I think most riders will be surprised to find how tight and quick this bike handles based on its numbers; I know I was. It’s actually a reasonably flickable and playful bike that, mostly, doesn’t handle like a 66.5-degree head angle would let on. Will serious enduro riders find it too quick? Time will tell: Yeti’s Richie Rude, the current World Enduro Series Champion, hasn't used the 5.5c in competition yet.

But, flickable as it is, it still has slack geometry and long travel: It’s hard for an average-ish rider like me to describe the 5.5c as anything other than stable, planted, and composed. The rider sits in this bike, and with the short stays, it’s very easy to get way back, or to pick up the front wheel when necessary. Basically, the strategy for riding the 5.5c is to point it in the general direction you want to go, hold on, and hope you have enough air in the tires.

Without a close look, it's hard to tell the difference between the 5.5c (shown) and the smaller 4.5c

Matt Phillips

It’s so easy to go fast and keep speed on the 5.5c and just keep on rolling over everything. The 5.5c won’t make you a better rider, but it will make you, for better or worse, a faster and more confident descender. (And people worry about electric-assist mountain bikes getting less skilled riders in over their heads…)

The 5.5c has internal routing for all components. Rubber grommets help keep things quiet

Matt Phillips

I’ve been able to ride all production versions of Yeti’s Switch Infinity bikes. If I were to place the 5.5c in the line, I’d put it between the 5c and 6c. It’s more bike than the 5c; a better and faster descender and smoother though rough trails, but also less playful and less quick. But compared to the 6c, the 5.5c is livelier, more versatile, and easier to ride in less-than-extreme terrain. The 6c is so much bike that I don’t love trail riding with it, but the 5.5c is quick and fun enough that in mellower terrain it doesn’t feel like you’re doing fine upholstery work with a sledgehammer.

The 5.5c is a lot of bike, but it rides surprisingly small in tighter terrain

Matt Phillips

Yeti’s SB5.5c is a lot of bike, but an accessible, lively and fun-to-ride bike also. It’s another great addition to Yeti’s excellent line of Switch Infinity bikes, and one that should be on the shopping list of riders desiring a bike that puts a premium on speed, descending capability, and all-out fun.

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